Desert Rain
by Gartabro
Summary: It's May, and in New Mexico it's raining men and hammers.
1. Chapter One

**Disclaimer:** _Buffy: the Vampire Slayer _and _Thor_ belong to their respective owners.

**A/N: **Just a really _short_ story. It shouldn't be longer than two/three chapters.

x-x

When Buffy was sixteen, she became the Slayer, the one girl in the world destined to protect Earth from demons. Or at least stop the biggest threats from destroying the world because, as she had eventually discovered, the world was a big place and one girl alone couldn't take care of everything.

Luckily for her, she now shared the world with an army of slayers. Hers was a crazy and interesting life, don't doubt that, and she never has a dull moment. Buffy Summers had seen and heard many strange things, but after she picked that phone call, she decided that the current situation in New Mexico was going to her Top Ten Weirdest Situations.

Probably Top Five.

The blonde slayer stared at the wall and blinked. Recovering her voice, she asked Giles to repeat her words, because it was impossible that she had understood correctly what he had told her.

"A hammer. From outer space," she said again, still not believing it.

"SHIELD called, they thought we would be interested," came Giles' voice through the phone. Judging from his tone, he was also having problems with believing the situation.

The hammer was probably from her half of the world, but she wished that it wasn't. Buffy fell backwards against the bed behind her. She could send someone to check, of course, but SHIELD meant government and she simply didn't trust the government.

Not after the Initiative. Not after she had finally discovered what had happened with Marcie.

Don't get her wrong, she knew that Nick Fury had the best intentions in mind, but some things are not easily forgotten. Buffy hated the thought of the government anywhere near her playground.

"Do I have to leave now?"

"Yes. Unless you want me to send someone else?"

"No, I'll go. I'm close," she said, taking a look at the screen of her computer. "Plus, I think I'm the only one free at the moment." It was May, always a busy month for the Council.

"There's Andrew."

"Don't be cruel," said the Slayer.

"He's not that bad anymore."

True, the kid had become a good watcher in the last years, but he still talked too much. She wasn't letting him alone in SHIELD, both for his safety and the Council's. And SHIELD's agents sanity.

"Whatever. I'll pack and go there."

Buffy hit the red button in her phone and sighed. Totally not fair, she had just helped stop another end of the world. If you asked her, she deserved a break for at least a week. She rubbed her eyes and sighed.

A hammer. Why would anyone…

She picked her phone again and called Dawn in Scotland. There was always a group that didn't participate (at least, not actively) in the Apocalypse Season, and Dawn was part of it this year. Buffy had been part of the group twice; everyone was always restless during the whole month.

"Dawn? I need you to search about hammers. No, I'm not joking, I'll send you photos later."

If this was a practical joke by some Queller demon, it wasn't funny.

x-x

The hammer was smaller than Olaf's, but it hummed with power and Buffy's fingers itched with the need of grasping the weapon and test it. It wasn't the same feeling as when she was near her Scythe (nothing could compare to that feeling), just a need that she had whenever she found a new weapon, like a child that wanted to play with a toy they had never seen before.

Now that she was away from the SHIELD agents and having breakfast at Isabela's Diner, Buffy briefly wondered what Willow would think of this weapon, of its magic. The Head Slayer shook her head and concentrated on the current situation. Her apocalyptic battle might be over, but it was still May and a powerful object had fallen from the sky.

To make matters worse, someone had already tried to steal it. From what Coulson had told her, the person was human, or at least, he had looked human. The photo, from a fake ID, she had been given was of a smiling blond man with blue eyes.

Buffy took a sip from her coffee and looked at the small laptop on her hands and replayed again one of the videos from the security cameras. The blonde broke into the lab that SHIELD had constructed around the hammer and reached for it. He tried to lift the weapon, shouting to the sky when he didn't manage to.

How curious, he looked so sure that he could lift it when he approached…

There was another video, this one from the interrogation after he had been captured by the agents. Nothing special, except the little jumps in the video when Coulson left the room and when he returned. Buffy rewound the video and frowned when she noticed that the man was moving his lips, like if speaking with someone else.

Her mobile vibrated in her pocket, a message from her sister with information about the hammer. Buffy's eyebrows rose in incredulous surprise when she read the message. She hadn't been expecting this!

_Remember what Anya used to tell us about the Norse Gods?_ Said Dawn's message.

Oh, she remembered very well. It had been during the whole problem with Glory when Anya had decided to talk about the gods from her childhood. They had stared at her for a few seconds after that, when they remembered that Anya had been a Norse woman during her first two decades of life. The ex-demon had just rolled her eyes and commented about how everyone kept forgetting that she was the oldest in their group.

She missed Anya.

She noticed movement outside and saw the owner of the diner speaking with her mysterious blond man. The Slayer got up and walked outside.

"I can't believe it! Never thought that I would meet you here!" she said to the man. "Join me for coffee?"

Buffy smiled. She wasn't dealing with demons. She was dealing with aliens.

Best May ever.


	2. Chapter Two

**Disclaimer: **_Buffy: the Vampire Slayer _and _Thor_ belong to their respective owners.

A/N: After exams and discovering that stress is bad for my health, here's the next chapter (partly written while one meds).

x-x

"Let me guess. You're Thor, right?" asked the woman after their coffee had been served. "I'm Buffy."

Thor's world had changed a lot in the last few days, but the presence of the woman sitting in front of him had truly surprised him. Until now, none of those he had met remembered his people, and if they did, like Erik, they didn't believe that he could be one of them.

However, Buffy not only knew about the Asgardians, but she also seemed to not have any problem with accepting that he was one of them.

"This world is rather big. Big enough to be two worlds in one, in fact," she explained when he asked her about her acceptance of the situation. "And, honestly, the last time you were here, you guys only visited a small corner of Earth."

The last part of the explanation, he understood easily. Darcy had showed him a map of Midgard this morning. The first part, however…

"Two worlds?"

"One is full of humans," said Buffy. "The other one belongs to demons and magic."

"I remember trolls from my few visits," commented Thor. "But I don't remember any human that was a magic user."

Or, at least, that's what Loki always said, that Midgard was a world without magic.

Asgard had always considered Midgard to be a world of little interested and, in consequence, it was rarely visited. More than one had asked themselves why it was part of the Nine Realms in the first place. In the end, Asgard had broken contact with Midgard.

The God of Thunder barely remembered his own visits to this realm. When had it been the last time? Was it during his second century of life?

"Perhaps you did meet them, but you simply don't remember. Sometimes it's better not to draw attention to yourself." Buffy typed in her computer, while continuing the conversation with the blond. "You will be surprised how badly humans react to magic and demons."

Witches always seemed to be the first ones accused when something bad happened. Broke a leg? Witch. Bad harvest? Witch. Your boy has fallen for another girl? Obviously, she's a witch.

It _really_ annoyed Willow and Dawn.

"Humans? Are you not…"

"Human? I _am_ human." There was some tension in her words, and the expression on her face was a serious one. However, Thor noted some doubt on her words. "I just have a few extras and don't spend that much time in the human world."

She fell silent and focused again on the computer before changing the topic of their conversation.

"Back to not drawing attention, I'm in favor of not drawing the attention of any god. It doesn't matter if you're aliens or higher powers; you never bring anything good with you."

"I assure you that I have no ill intentions towards this realm."

"That better be the case. I was once told that you were one of the good guys, so I'm going to trust that the information that I was given is correct."

Buffy turned the computer towards him so he could watch the video in the screen. Thor immediately recognized the moment when his brother had informed him of the death of their father and of his permanent banishment.

"You are with SHIELD."

"No, but they were the ones that called me." The woman turned the computer towards her and stopped the video. When she looked back at him, there was something in her expression that reminded him of his father. "Would you mind explaining who you were talking with?"

x-x

A god exiled in mortal form. Or, to be more exact, an alien that used to be worshipped as a god by the Vikings was currently exiled in her world permanently. Apparently, her new friend had caused quite a bit of trouble in his own world.

Also, what was with gods and exiles in Earth? Was there some kind of big neon sign over the planet with the words "dump your problematic god here"?

Buffy remembered again Anya's words about the ones that had once been her gods. She had barely spoken about it, just a few comments during the whole thing with Glory, but the ex-demon had said that Asgard had nothing against Earth and that they saw it as of little importance.

She had also commented how most demons had decided to keep away from the visiting Asgardians whenever they visited. Apparently, the alien race really loved a good fight.

The Slayer wondered what would have happened if Asgard had decided to visit Chine ten centuries ago. According to the archives of the Council, some Chinese demons had tried to end the world at the time and the attempt had involved dragons; ignoring the attempt at ending the world, Buffy would had loved to have seen those dragons.

In any case…

"Sorry about your parents."

What else could she said? A father dead, a mother that doesn't even want to see you…

"What do you plan on doing now?"

"I don't know where to start," admitted the blond man. "All I was, I am not anymore; and all I knew about this world is wrong."

Buffy finished her coffee and looked at the alien sitting in front of her. There was an idea in her mind. It was risky, and she was sure that the others won't like the idea of another "exiled god", but she had decided to trust Anya's words.

"How do you feel about fighting demons?"

"Excuse me?"

"Demons. Fighting against them." Buffy smiled entertained. "We already have a god of the demonic variety, I think it's time we add an alien one to the list."

Silently, Buffy prayed that she wasn't wrong about this decision. If Anya was actually wrong about Thor, the ex-demon was dying again once Buffy crossed to the Other Side.

In any case, if Thor turned out to be a threat, it was better to keep an eye on him. If worst thing happens, Illyria had been bored for while.

x-x

"I have a request," said Thor after Buffy explained her offer and they were crossing the door.

"Which one?"

"Mjonir. You mentioned that the demons would notice it sooner or later. I don't wish to see it in their hands."

"You want me to protect it." It wasn't a question. "I was planning on it. Even if no one can move it, someone will eventually learn how to use the magic inside it. I'll speak with Willow later."

The hammer was problematic. Thanks to his father, Thor couldn't lift it now ("I'm not longer worthy of the hammer", had said the Asgardian), but that wouldn't stop a group of demons from paying a visit to the object and trying to gain access to its power.

And it did have a lot of power.

Buffy wasn't Willow, but she was sure that a demon with the power of Mjolnir was as such a bad idea as a demon getting hold of the Scythe.

Thor had insisted on telling the group that had helped him since his "landing" about their conversation. Buffy wasn't convinced that it was such a great idea. According to Thor, they still didn't fully believe that he wasn't human.

"I will not leave without giving any explanation," insisted Thor, throwing the lab's crystal doors open.

Inside the building, there were three people discussing about bridges. A man and a woman, probably Erik Selvig and Jane Foster, walked around the room. A younger woman, which Buffy identified as Darcy Lewis, was sitting on a desk and observed the discussion among the two physics with a mug on her hands.

"Jane Foster, Erik Selvig, we must speak," said Thor upon entering.

Introductions were made, explanations were given, and by the end the three of them were looking at her like if she had three heads.

"So you work for the ones that stole my iPod…" commented Darcy with a glare.

"No. Why does everyone keep thinking that?"

"Thor said that you work with them."

The scientist in the room joined their glares with Darcy's and Buffy raised her hands in defense.

"With. The key word is "with". My organization has an agreement with SHIELD," explained Buffy. "If it's from the supernatural world, or there's suspicion that it's, we get called."

"Then you're here because of the hammer?" asked Jane.

"Originally, yes."

Erik sat down in a chair and rubbed his eyes. The last days were started to affect him.

"Legendary hammers, gods, bridges to other realms… And now you're telling me that there's another world here? On Earth?"

"It's like a two for the price of one thing," commented Buffy.

"What I don't understand it's how no one has noticed it before."

"We keep quiet; it saves us from a lot of problems. Plus, I'm starting to suspect that the Powers That Be are also meddling. I mean, there's no way that Asgard never found it weird that Earth was the only realm without magic."

"Someone's magic has been affecting my mind?" asked Thor with a frown.

"Maybe. If so, welcome to the "We Hate the Powers" Club. I'm the president."


	3. Chapter Three

**Disclaimer:** _Buffy: the Vampire Slayer _and _Thor_ belong to their respective owners.

x-x

The air filled with sand when they landed on the desert. Curious, Sif thought, she didn't remember Midgard with so little trees. Had the Realm changed so much in the last centuries, or had the All-father sent Thor to a faraway place on it? That would make more sense. Odin had wanted to teach Thor a lesson, sending him away from any of those that worshipped them as gods.

"Spread out. Check the sand for indentations of his boot prints," said Volstagg.

"The winds would have blown them away by now," said Fandral in disagreement before proposing his own plan. "We should look for signs of a campfire."

Hogun, as silent as always, simply ignored the discussion between his friends and started walking towards the Midgardian settlement in the distance and the only sign of civilization in this place. Sif repressed a smile at them.

The situation was a serious one, that couldn't be denied, but this was still another adventure with her old friends.

"Or we could just start there," she nodded towards Hogun.

"I guess we could take a look at it," said Fandral. Both he and Volstagg looked a bit hurt that their plans weren't useful.

"We should be quick about it," said Sif. "It won't take long for Loki to discover that we are gone. We need to find Thor before he finds us."

x-x

The tension in the room could be cut with a butter knife. This kind of situation had become familiar for Buffy in the last years, whenever she had to inform the parents of a slayer (or sometimes a very talented witch) that their children were now part of another world. There was always denial at first, and sometimes the parents preferred to believe that their kids were mutants rather than accept that the dark world existed.

Buffy supposed that it was because mutants could be rationalized, but demons and magic followed their own set of rules. Or perhaps it was a refusal to believe that the Old Ones had existed once and that humanity wasn't the first race to walk this world, that their world wasn't as safe as they believed.

However, the current situation, while it was familiar, had a small difference: Thor. Buffy considered that she was lucky, because Thor's friends had already started to believe his story. With a bit of more luck, they would also start to believe that magic was real, even if Thor was actually an alien and not a god.

"Even if we accept that you're an alien," was saying Erik. "Demons and magic are another matter."

She could always make a rabbit appear from thin air, thought Buffy. Willow had taught her how to do it for this kind of situations.

"I know it is difficult to believe, Erik Selvig."

"It is! Our race has been here for thousands of years. We should have noticed at some point that we were sharing this world with a second race."

"Races," muttered Buffy. Everyone turned to look at her. "Demon _races_, there's more than one. And _they_ noticed _us_ when we appeared."

"Wait, wait," said Darcy. "Are you implying that they were here _before_ us? This is starting to sound like one of Lovecraft's stories."

The Slayer stared at the girl before speaking again, considering her next words.

"Actually, that man got a couple of things right."

Darcy's eyes widened at her words.

"_How much_?"

"Mostly, he got right the part about another race that once ruled Earth. They came from another dimension, though."

"And they're sleeping, right?"

"There's literally a hole in the Earth where they are trapped," said Buffy. "Let's hope it stays that way."

"What about Cthulhu?" Jane asked. Darcy and Buffy looked at her; Darcy looked slightly surprised. "What? You're not the only one that has read Lovecraft, Darcy."

"As far as we know, there's not an Old One by that name."

However, they had Old Ones as dangerous as that one, some even more. This piece of information Buffy decided to keep silent about, especially the part where that hole in the ground was called the Deeper Well and had two openings, one on each side of the planet.

She also kept silent about the part where sometimes they got away from their prison, and that not all of them were trapped there, some were in other dimensions.

"There's something else, isn't there?" said Jane.

"Maybe," was Buffy's answer.

"This is still crazy."

"I know it's crazy, Mr. Selvig. I also didn't want to believe that it was true when I learned about it."

"But you believe it in the end," said the man.

"Vampires are a bit difficult to discuss with," Darcy's face got a strange look at the mention of vampires. Buffy turned to speak to her. "No True Blood or Twilight, and the same goes for the Vampire Chronicles and the Diaries. These are all evil and only see you as their next meal."

"Way to kill a girl's dream."

"Just making sure that you stay alive," said Buffy seriously. "With all those books, everyone forgets that vampires are dangerous and start to think that they're just cute puppies with fangs."

"Understood," the girl smirked at her. "Does Dracula exist?"

"I'm _so_ not talking about that one."

"You know him!"

"I..." she fell silent and her muscles tensed. There was something... off. It wasn't demons; it felt a bit like something that she had met before, but way stronger. What was it?

A series of quick knocks of a fist against a crystal made everyone turn around towards the door of the lab. There was group of four people there, three men and one woman, all dresses in strange armour and with weapons. They were pressing themselves against the crystal and there were four big smiles in their faces.

"Found you," exclaimed the redheaded one. A matching smile appeared on Thor's face and he went to hug the group of four.

"My friends!" he cried.

Ah, aliens, then. The feeling was different from what she got from Thor's; it was weaker in him, practically nonexistent. He felt very human to her, probably because of his banishment. The hammer, however it felt different, it was pure magic.

And now that she noticed the current situation, Thor's human friends may finally believe their words. That or believe that they were all sharing the same hallucinations. Buffy crossed her fingers.

She was having a good day, let it stay that way, Powers.

"I hate my life," said Erik. He sounded like Giles, he was only missing one pair of glasses to polish and then he would be a perfect American version of Giles.

"What?" Erik asked when he noticed Buffy.

"Do you use glasses?"


	4. Chapter Four

**Disclaimer:** _Buffy: the Vampire Slayer_ and _Thor_ belong to their respective owners.

A/N: I guess we should forget about this fic only being three chapters long.

x-x

Loki placed Gungnir in the pedestal and the energy of the Bifrost, like lighting, reached from the metal of the pedestal to the walls. Behind Loki, Heimdall was still frozen in the middle of his attack. It had been difficult to freeze him with the Casket, and Loki wasn't sure how long it would hold.

With a wave of his hand, the Destroyer became visible again and walked to the portal that the Bifrost had created.

"Kill them all." He needed time to deal with the current situation, and those four returning with Thor would just complicate things. And if the Destroyer actually killed them all? Ah, well, they were just traitors. He gazed at the figured of Heimdall behind him; he would deal with him later.

The Destroyer disappeared in the portal and Loki started to open a new one, this time to Jotunheim instead of Midgard.

x-x

Away from Puente Antiguo, some agents of SHIELD were inspecting the marks left behind by the latest alien landing. Agent Coulson took out the sunglasses shielding his eyes from the sun and kneeled to take a closer look at the marks.

"Call someone from linguistics," he said to another agent.

There was a rumbling above them, and the agents looked upwards. There had been a clear sky all morning, but now there were dark clouds starting to gather above them. Below their feet, the ground trembled slightly.

Then it was like something was launched down and the clouds touched the ground.

x-x

Saying that the last few days had been insane was an understatement. Her storm had turned out to be the Bifrost and a god from the myths had literally fallen from the sky; she had learned about the existence of other realms, that her theories were right and not as ridiculous as everyone insisted.

And now she had been told that demons and magic existed. Of course, Thor had confirmed himself that magic did exist… If it also existed in Earth, could that mean that there were people in her planet that knew how to open bridges? Perhaps she should ask Buffy after all this was solved.

"Something bad is going to happen," said Buffy next to her. The blonde woman was looking with narrowed eyes at Thor speaking with his friends.

"Excuse me?"

"Loki. His brother. He lied to Thor," she elaborated. "Of course, it goes with his title, but he told Thor that his father was dead."

"And that he was permanently banished," added Jane.

"Exactly."

"And because of this something bad is going to happen?"

"Loki is king now, right? He clearly wants to keep Thor away." Buffy nodded towards the Asgardians. "And now we have a surprise visit from his friends."

Jane rested against the desk behind her and sighed. Thor's family had some big issues if his own brother was acting like this towards him. And now that she thought about it, wasn't Loki supposed to be Odin's blood brother or something like that? How had the myths ended being so different from reality? So many questions about those myths...

In any case, they had to take care of the current problem first. What were the original terms of Thor's banishment? There might have been a way for Thor to return if Loki had felt the need to lie.

"Thor, listen to me, please!" exclaimed Sif. Thor shook his head, still trying to understand Loki's actions.

"It makes no sense, Sif," said Thor. "He's my brother, he wouldn't-"

"But he did! Something is wrong with Loki. You need to come back."

"He's a Frost Giant and you guys went on a killing spree on Jotunheim?" everyone turned to Buffy. She shrugged at them. "Just saying."

"Frost Giant?" said Volstagg. "I fear you're wrong. It's not your fault, of course. The stories told about us are very inexact."

"Okay... This is awkward," she looked at them. Jane thought she seemed to be a bit uncomfortable with the conversation now. "I may have or may have not known someone older than you that got curious when the war with the Frost Giants happened? She never talked much about her past, but she told us a couple things about Asgard: you're long lived aliens and the myths are wrong except for a couple of things."

The Asgardians looked at each other.

"The attack on the vault," said Hogun. "No one knows how they reached it."

"No," Thor stopped them from even thinking about that. "Even if what Buffy says it's true, he wouldn't betray Asgard. In any case, the idea that Loki is a Frost Giant is difficult to believe."

"Thor, if it's true..." started Fandral.

"It still changes nothing," said Thor in a firm tone that admitted no discussion.

"But-"

"Was someone else coming?" interrupted Darcy.

She was standing in front of the doors, looking at the desert in the distance where a group of clouds were reaching towards the ground. It looked like a tornado. When the clouds finally touched down and disappeared, there were a few moments of silence; but the calm didn't last and they saw an explosion taking place where the clouds once were.

"Loki," said Sif, already reaching for her weapon. "We need to take the townsfolk to safety."

"Thor, will you fight alongside us?" asked Fandral.

"My friends, I'm weak in this form. I would only get in your way," answered Thor. "I can, however, help with the town."

"I knew this day was being too peaceful," commented Buffy. She opened the doors and started to walk out.

"Where are you going?" asked Erik.

"I need to get something from my car," said the blonde woman. "I'll be back soon."

x-x

There was something different about the blonde Midgardian. A part of Sif insisted that the woman was dangerous and she didn't know how to feel about it. Of course, another part of her was enthusiastic at the presence of another female warrior.

"I fear that swords won't be of much use with this one," Sif told Buffy when she returned. In response, the blonde lifted the hand that wasn't holding a sword and showed her the object resting on it. It was a black box, with white lines on its sides forming some kind of runes that she couldn't identify. "What's that?"

"A gift from my best friend," answered the woman. "Willow gets bored sometimes and makes these things, she calls them boxed spells. Hopefully, this one will stop that armour long enough for everyone to get out of here."

"It won't stop the Destroyer for long," said Sif, walking towards the explosions that the walking weapon was causing. Before both of them, the Warrior Three lead the way.

"Let's hope is long enough to figure a way to stop it."

Buffy made a small cut in her thumb with her sword and traced one the white runes with her blood. The white lines started to glow with a red light.

"Boys, get down!" she exclaimed when the Destroyer came into sight. She threw the box towards the armour, hitting it in the chest. The box exploded with a white and red light against the chest of the armour. From the point of the explosion, something that looked like ice started to envelope the Destroyer until it was totally encased in something in the substance.

"Is it ice?"

"No, magic, but we _do_ keep calling it that. You should ask Willow about it." Behind the cocoon created by the spell, an orange light could be seen. It was creating little cracks on the ice. "Okay, think quickly, because I don't think we have much time."


End file.
